Ometepe Island, Nicaragua

Our nexst stop would be to take a trip to the Island of Ometepe. Thats right a island made up of 2 volcanoes, situated in the middle of Lake Nicaragua. It is one thing to climb a volcano, but to stay on a volcanic island.....that´s just cool (maybe i am having dellusions of it being a secret Bond villan´s lair).

Anyway, after thinking we had managed to leave all types of boat transport behind, we realised that to get to the island, we would need to take the ferry. Damn !

We took a chicken bus from Granada to Rivas and then to the ferry terminal. We didnt have to wait long until the ferry arrived and we set sail for Ometepe. So far so good, we made it to the island in one piece and set about finding some accommodation. 

The island is basically 2 volcanoes sitaued side by side, with a small strip of land in between joining them. 

We would be staying on the smaller of the 2 volcanoes in a basic hostel. The island is very quiet and a basic living, with the main occuaption in growing bananas and plantine.

There was one killer hill !

We would spend 3 days on the island just chilling out and exploring. Our first day we hired some mountain bikes and cyclyed to one of the larger towns to explore. This was a lovely bike ride, as the roads (in some parts) were relatively new, flat and smooth. 

The next day we decided that although the mountain bikes were nice, it was a bit hot to be cycling, so set about hiring a motorbike for the day. So we got up early and set off exploring the island in more detail.

What a great day, we managed to see soo much more and explore the true hidden parts of the island. After a nice breakfast in the main port town, we headed to one of the national park areas and took a lovely nature walk round a small lagoon. 

After this we went to the other island and tried to find a local waterfall. However we soon found that the road system was good, but only up until where they had got to i.e. they had only done half of the 2 islands. The roads were the original bumpy (and i mean bumpy) stone tracks. We pushed on for about an hour along these tracks, but soon gave up. We also found that the trek to the waterfall was a good few hours return and with the bike having to be back early afternoon, we decided against it.

All in all though it was a great day. Nice to be back on a motorbike again and a fab way to cruise effortlessly round the lovely, quiet and stunning island.

So after a good few days just chilling on our very own volcanic island, we were ready to leave. Our next trip would be another long one. 

This time destination: Costa Rica, the last of our 4 Central America countries.

Granada, Nicaragua

Granada´s Main Cathedral

We had a relatively easy journey from Leon to Granada. This was our usual routine of getting up early and setting off in the cool of the morning, rather than the heat of the day. We got a mini bus to Managua (the Nicaraguan Capital) and hopped straight into another mini bus bound for Granada. Both journeys took a total of 4 hours, so a breeze compared to some of the other journeys we had taken. 

We arrived in to Granada about lunch time and set about finding a hostel. We dumped our bags and set out to explore the town. Already it was clear that this was a lovely town. Compared to Leon, it was a town with more features, variety of colonial building and overall more interesting to explore. The main central sqaure, Cathedral and side streets all had a lot more charm and intrigue. We would spend the next 4 days in Granada, exploring and taking in the sights and atmosphere. 

Chocolate Making

Our first afternoon we jumped straight in to one of the activities we had researched. The Chocolate Museum. A 2 hour course on how to make your own chocolate. A great afternoon and since we had previouly been in the hills of Honduras and seen the Cocoa trees growing, it was now nice to see the process all the way through and take it from the Cocoa pod to eating a choccy bar !

The course was a small group and involved us taking the Cocoa beans and turning it in a variety of traditional drinks and a chocolate bar of our choice. The process involved roasting the beans on an open fire, de-shelling them, grinding it into a paste and then turning it in to the final product. A great afternoon and a lovely choccy bar. Of course we had to eat it very quickly, otherwise it would have melted....honest ! 

Poetry Festival, Granada

We were in Granada on a weekend and as luck would have it, the same weekend would see the town host one of its main annual festivals; the annual poetry festival in Nicaragua. Now i know that we couldn´t understand a word of the poetry, but the town has an extra buzz and side attractions because of it. This included various bands and acts performing on stages after the poetry. So for the Friday and Saturday nights we enjoyed the bands and being part of the the local event. 

Granada is situated on the northern shores of Lake Nicaragua (the largest lake in Central America and 19th Largest in the world - thanks Wikipedia). We took a mornings tour of the series of 360+ islands found on the northern end. This was a lovely trip and nice to see the layout, houses and wildlife. 

The rest of the days in Granada were spent exploring the side streets, churches and local markets. We found a nice church with access to its clock tower, which gave some great views over the city and surrounding volcanoes. On our walks we also managed to find a newer and nicer hostel, so ended up changing to nicer surrounds. 

17 Person Hammock !

We also found a shop and local project run to help kids with disabilites. Their main output was a whole variety of hammocks. The biggest was a 17 person hammock, well we couldnt resist in trying it out. Although i think it might over stretch the garden boundaries of our pettite garden at Banbury Close!

Chicken bus for our day trip to Masaya

Our last full day in Granada was spent taking a short trip to a near by town called Masaya.  Another local Nicaraguan town, with a small hub of arts and crafts stuff. A good little trip out and nice to travel around without having to lug our rucsacks.

Our next stop.......staying on a volcanic island !

Hola Nicaragua !

So after a very long few days of travellling we arrived in to Leon, Nicaragua. We found a nice hostel, in the centre of town and settled in to our dorm. We would spend the next few days here, just exploring and finding out what there is to do in Nicaragua. The hostel was a lovely open and spacious place, which was a nice surprise as it is right in the centre of town. The front face of the building is deceptive and once inside opens out in a large court yard and small pool, with lots of shade and hammocks - perfect !

Leon is a fairly large town and was once upon a time the capital of Nicaragua. It is something like the 3rd largest town in Nicaragua but doesnt have the hustle and bustle of a town its size. It is a typical Cental American town, set out on a grid system of blocks (Streets running one way and and Avenues the other). This is nice to navigate round, but then on the other hand a bit boring when walking round, as everything appears samey after a while. 

One of the main features of Leon is the abundance of Cathedrals and Churches. This seemed to have been a hub for new designs and architecture, so as a result there is a lot of them. They are now old and on the outside appear worn and faded, but the insides have been kept maintained, so a nice contrast when you walk inside.

Our first few days were spent just being and mocching round and soaking up the sights, sounds and smells.

It was whilst in Leon that we discovered that we needed to obtain a Visa for Cuba......arrgghh !

We have found out that we couldn´t have got this in the UK, as it needs to be within 3 months of entering the country. Therefore we spent a whole afternoon trawling the internet to find out what we needed to do and how to go about getting one. In short we would need to go to a Cuban Embassy, either in Managua (the Capital of Nicaragua) or San Jose (the Capital of Costa Rica). More of this later. 

After a nice few days it was time to move on from Leon. Our next stop would be a slightly larger town called Granada, situated on the shores of Lake Nicaragua.But so far, Nicaragua is a refreshing change to El Salvador and Honduras.

A very long bus journey

This was the journey i was not looking forward to. After leaving Roatan it was our intention to head south, all the way through Honduras and start out tour of Nicaragua. All in all this would take us 2 days and cover alot of miles.

We left our little cabin on Roatan in the early hours of the morning, got a taxi to the port and boarded the ferry. This time i took only 1 tablet and felt a little more human, but still managed to sleep for the 1.5 hour journey back to the main land. On arriving in La Ceiba we took a short taxi to the bus station and bought a ticket for the first leg. This was heading back to San Pedro Sula, the main bus hub for Honduras. This was relatively painless and took only 3.5 hours.

From here we trawled through the massive bus station to try and find a bus company that would take us all the way through Honduras, over the border crossing and down to Leon. Luckily we enrolled the help of some local Hondurans by standing and looking gormless in the middles of the terminal. It worked and before long we found the offices for Tica Bus.

We bought our tickets and struggled to comprehend that the man behind the counter was saying that we had to be there at 04:15 am the next morning. Sorry, that´s 4:15 AM, ie very early morning - bugger !

So with tickets purchased, we set about trying to find a place to sleep for the night. San Pedro Sula is not exactly one of the nicest places, but we found a typcial "city hostel". Needless to say, it was a bit like a fortress, but it was safe and we had a place to stay. 

The next morning we were awake at 3:30am and got a taxi back to the bus terminal. We found our coach and settled in for the 14 hour journey ahead. To be fair it was a relatively easy journey, just long and hot. We stopped briefly in the sprawling capital Tegucigalpa, then on south to the border crossing. 

The crossing was ok, if not a long drawn out process that took a good 1.5 hours. We finally made it to Leon at about 5pm and got a nice hostel.

A long day, but one without any dramas. Tomorrow we exploe Nicaragua.

Bay Islands - Roatan

Our next trip would take us across the entire width of Honduras, out in to the Caribbean sea and towards the Bay Islands. This was not going to be quick, so we packed up and set out early to catch a 6am chicken bus, luckily though we were rewarded with a proper coach, not a typical ram-shackled bus.

The first leg was an easy 3.5 hour journey from Copan to San Pedro Sula, stopping a lot on the way to pick up locals, but to be expected. San Pedro is one of the main bus hubs in the north, so we had to head here first, rather than direct to the coast. Here we changed buses and then had a further 3.5 hour bus journey to the coast, a place called La Ceiba.

From La Ceiba, we had a few hour wait before we could get a ferry over to the islands. Now as you know my previous run of luck on ferries and boats has not ended too well, so i decided to ask the people at the ticket office for some sea sickness pills. Perfect, they gave me two, which I promptly took. Whilst sitting in the departure area for the ferry, Kip decided to get some tablets to, but was surprised to only receive one. On questioning the guy why he had only given her one, he replied that's all you need, as they make you really drowsy. Basically taking 2 would just be daft and pretty much knock you out....cue my worried and drowsy expression. Needless to say I didn't see any of the 1.5 hour ferry crossing as I was sound asleep. (hey, at least I wasn't sea sick!!)

Home sweet home

So we arrived at the island of Roatan, the larger of the 3 bay islands and headed in to the west of the island to find a hostel. We managed to find a nice little place with beachy type cabbanas.

The next day we awoke and took a tour of our new home for the next week. It is not the most picturesque place we have been, but I has a really nice, island and chilled feeling. A place where you were on holiday as opposed to travelling, a nice feeling after being on the go for so long.

"Yank" free paradise

We walked all the way down the coast to the other end of the west end of the island. We walked along some lovely open beaches and enjoyed the views. Towards th end of the beach the hotels built up and with it....the yanks. That's right, with a short flight only a few hours away, this place attracted a whole lot of Americans. It also didn't help that the day we went was a cruise ship day, so there were more than normal. We visited the same beach a few days later and were rewarded with a more quiet and less crowded view - bliss !

One of the main attractions of Roatan and this area is the abundance of diving and since getting my PADI qualifications, it was easy to do some diving. So Kip and I set ut to do 4 dives over a few days. The dives were amazing and a real mix. On the first day we saw the amazing coral reefs surrounding the island, with it came the colourful array of tropical fish and turtles ! Very cool to swim alongside the chilled out turtles (just like in Finding Nemo - but they didn´t hi-five or talk to you)

We also did a dive over the wreck of a ship - that was very cool. It had been sunk on purpose about 15 years ago and has since broken up in to 3 main sections following the various hurricanes that lashed the coast.

Sadly after our little break away from the normal routine of travelling, we had to leave Roatan and continue our journey south through the main land. Our next trip would be a long one, so we packed up and set sail back for La Ceiba.

Over view with post diving beers in hand

3 Countries....1 Day (and 1 amazing tour!)

Our first of the four Central American countries completed, it was time to bid farewell to El Salvador. Our next country would be Honduras.

We decided that as today would involve various border crossings we would take a shuttle service, rather than the chicken buses. This would also mean a 4 hour journey instead of a 10 hour one - a no brainer really!

Copan Ruinas (the town)

We were picked up at 8am and shared the shuttle with another couple (no chickens!). The route we would take from El Salvador to Honduras would actually take us into Guatemala, as it was a more direct route to our next stop, a place called Copan Ruinas. It was a smooth journey and easy crossing in and out of the various borders. Lots more stamps for the passport although I had technically only been in Guatemala for a few hours. 

We arrived in Copan Ruinas about midday and trudged round trying to find a hostel. After this we looked round this little market town; a nice cobbled streeted place with a friendly and more relaxed atmosphere, unlike the hustle, bustle (and gun shots) of Santa Ana. The main draw for coming to Santa Ana are the Mayan ruins just outside of town. There are a lot of these dotted through central America, some of the more impressive and famous ones in Guatemala and Mexico, but these are noted to be some of the most detailed and descriptive. 

The next day we set off for the ruins and started exploring them. They were impressive and still unbelievable to know how they managed to build such structures centuries ago, with primitive technology. More bizarre is what happened to the entire civilisation, that meant the vast cities were just deserted and overgrown. For my first set of ruins, they were impressive.

We returned into town and mooched round again to explore then little side streets. Whilst doing this we also caught site of a tour (which had also been highly recommended to us by some previous travellers). It was a tour of a local Finca (coffee plantation and house). We decided to book it and take the plunge.

Well the tour at Finca El Cisne was one of the best tours of our entire trip so far; and that is saying something! First we would take an hour's ride out in to the country, this was in true Hondruan style, in the back of a pickup. 

Finca El Cisne is a 80+ year old coffee plantation situated in the true hill country of Honduras. The tour is run by Carlos, the 3rd generation of family who now owns and runs the land.

First of all we started with a 2-2.5 hour horse ride through the coffee plants, hillsides and land that Carlos owns. 

 

Nancy Midgely eat your heart out !

Now I know that Kip was really looking forward to the horse riding and had been a number of times before. Me.....well I'd seen a few horses in my time, but the thought of getting on one....nah! I have to say they were very well trained and beautifully kept horses. Not just for tourists, but you could tell that they were work horses and used to roam the land and well behaved. 

So we set out on the ride and all was well. We trekked along the dirt tracks in between the various fields and then off onto the land. Up hills, down sidings and through little rivers. All very cool and I did not fall off once! The best bit was on route back to the house at lunchtime, the horses obviously knew where they were and set off, at pace, back home. This was great and i managed to hold on (although I did loose my hat, as I was going at such a cantor).

Carlos (Doing quality control - the old sniff test)

We then stopped at Carlos's family home for a cooked lunch, which was amazing to have a proper home cooked meal was a very nice treat ! After a little rest, we took a tour round the coffee plantation and saw the systems and plant that his Grandfather had built many years ago. Unlike the other coffee plantatation/factory we saw, this was a bit more basic, but clever in the use of local water streams channeled to drive the plant. They also used water to sort, grade and wash the beans, during the process. All very clever and nicely setup.

Ther effects of having cold showers were starting to show....

After such a tiring day of playing it was time to go to the local thermal springs and chill out. A little town, a short drive away, we were shown to a series of rock pools that were nicely set out and harnessed the local and natural geothermal springs. Not a bad way to ease the aches and pains of your first horse riding session.

The rest of the group who was with us were taken back to town, whilst Kip and I went to our little home stay for the night. This was a little house we had to ourselves and had another lovely local home made meal cooked for us. We were shattered, so retired to bed early. 

The next day we decided that the horse riding was so good that we out to cease the opportunity and do some more. So we did. Another personally guided tour by Carlos, this time with just us and his head hocho for the rancgh. A different route through his vast estate. Another great horse ride and a great end to an awesome trip. Carlos returned us to Copan and we said our goodbyes. 

As I say an amazing excursion and something that will definitely be a high light on our travels. Being able to see the non-touristy areas and have such an informed guide it was truly great.

Santa Ana (El Salvador)

After our chicken bus ride from Ta Cuba to Auachapan, we then caught a second bus to Santa Ana, all in all about 4.5 hours. Santa Ana is the 3rd largest town in the northern part of El Salvador and would be our base for us to explore the surrounding countryside. We stayed in a lovely hostel that was very well setup. It makes you appreciate a nice hostel, when you have stayed in some bad ones.

The afternoon we arrived, we mooched round Santa Ana to see the sites. We had done in about 2 hours, but that was still good to do. A lot of the cities are set up on a grid system like in northern America, so after wandering around for a time it all looks the same. That said, Santa Ana had a nice cathedral and town square with old colonial style buildings.

The main reason for coming here though was Volcanoes! Now I don't know what the excitement is, but the thought of climbing a live volcano is pretty cool. I say "live", it last erupted in 2005, but still not exactly dormant.

The day started out with a chicken bus ride to the national park. It was a 2 hour ride and luckily we avoided the usual run through of people selling stuff, as this was an early bus straight from the garage. After arriving at the national park we had to wait a while until the park opened, but soon after got a guide and 2 armed security guards (they were there just incase, as there had been historic robberies along the walk - eek!)

The walk started with a trek trek through the lower lying forest, then a steady climb up to the alpine desert of the upper levels. When we got to the top it was an amazing view, again the pictures here are only a snap shot of what we saw. Te hardest part is to try and convey the size and depth of the inner crater and lake, they were just massive.

Volcan Izacol

Also from the top we were able to look down and across to a 'new' volcano called Volcan Izacol, that was formed only about 200 years ago. After a blustery stay at the top, we then worked our way back down to the start and waited for our bus ride home. We had a small group from the same hostel and that made a nice difference as we could enjoy the trip with other people. There was a couple from Detroit and 2 guys from LA. 

That night we rewarded ourselves with a nice meal out at a "proper restaurant", not something we had done that often, but after scaling and surviving a volcano, why not.